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Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran executed Wednesday a man it said worked for Israel's foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the 2022 killing of a Revolutionary Guard colonel in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report identified the man as Mohsen Langarneshin and said he was hanged. It called him a “senior spy” for the Mossad, who provided “technical support” in the assassination of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
The agency said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal.
Langarneshin reportedly rented safe houses for operatives in several Iranian cities, including Isfahan, when, in January 2023, bomb-carrying drones targeted what Iran described as a military workshop. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the attack.
The report said Langarneshin confessed in Iran's Revolutionary court, which usually provides a court-appointed lawyer and doesn't allow media access.
At the time of his assassination, local media identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s Quds force that oversees foreign operations.

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World

Israel Reportedly Took Iran's Araghchi, Qalibaf Off Hit List after Pakistan Request to US

FILED - 09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. Photo: Stringer/dpa
FILED - 09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. Photo: Stringer/dpa
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Israel Reportedly Took Iran's Araghchi, Qalibaf Off Hit List after Pakistan Request to US

FILED - 09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. Photo: Stringer/dpa
FILED - 09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. Photo: Stringer/dpa

Israel took Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf off its hit list after Pakistan requested that Washington not target them, a Pakistani source with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters on Thursday.

"The Israelis had their coordinates and wanted to take them out, we told the US if they are also eliminated then there is no one else to talk to, hence the US asked the Israelis to back off," the source said.

Pakistan's ⁠military and foreign ⁠office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that the two top Iranian officials had been temporarily removed from Israel's list of officials to eliminate as they explore possible peace talks.

The two officials have been removed from the list ⁠for up to four or five days, the Journal said, citing US officials, but did not mention any Pakistani role in it. Pakistan, Egypt and Türkiye are playing the role of mediator between Tehran and Washington to end the Iran war.

Islamabad has maintained direct contact with both Washington and Tehran at a time when such channels are frozen for most other countries. Islamabad has also been seen as a likely venue if peace talks are ⁠held.

Iran is ⁠reviewing a 15-point proposal from US President Donald Trump, sent through Pakistan, to end the war. The proposal calls for removing Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium, halting enrichment, curbing its ballistic missile program and cutting off funding for regional allies, according to Israeli cabinet sources familiar with the plan.

Trump has said Iran is desperate to make a deal, while Araghchi said Tehran was reviewing the US proposal but had no intention of holding talks to wind down the conflict.

World

Venezuela's Maduro Back in US Court after Stunning Capture

(FILES) Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting at the National Assembly in Caracas on August 22, 2025. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
(FILES) Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting at the National Assembly in Caracas on August 22, 2025. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
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Venezuela's Maduro Back in US Court after Stunning Capture

(FILES) Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting at the National Assembly in Caracas on August 22, 2025. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
(FILES) Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro looks on during a meeting at the National Assembly in Caracas on August 22, 2025. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro will appear Thursday in a New York court for the second time since his capture by US forces in an extraordinary nighttime raid.

Maduro, 63, and wife Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail for almost three months after American commandos snatched the pair from their compound in Caracas in early January, said AFP.

The stunning operation deposed the strongman who had led Venezuela since 2013 and has since forced the oil-rich country to largely bend to the will of US President Donald Trump.

Maduro has declared himself a "prisoner of war" and pleaded not guilty to the four counts of "narco-terrorism" conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Thursday's hearing at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) will likely see Maduro push for the dismissal of his case as lawyers tussle over who will pay the former leader's legal fees.

Venezuela's government is seeking to cover the costs, but because of Washington's sanctions, his lawyer Barry Pollack must obtain a US license that has not been issued.

Pollack argued in a court submission that the license requirement violated Maduro's constitutional right to legal representation and demanded the case be thrown out on procedural grounds.

- Deadly raid -

Detained in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison known for unsanitary conditions, Maduro is reportedly alone in a cell with no access to the internet or newspapers.

A source close to the Venezuelan government said the incarcerated Maduro reads the Bible and is referred to as "president" by some of his fellow detainees.

He is only allowed to communicate by phone with his family and lawyers for a maximum of 15 minutes per call, the source added.

"The lawyers told us he is strong. He said we must not be sad," said his son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, adding his father told him: "We are fine, we are fighters."

Maduro and his wife were forcibly taken by US commandos in the early hours of January 3 in airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment.

At least 83 people died and more than 112 people were injured in the assault, according to Venezuelan officials. No US service members were killed.

- US pressure -

At his first US court appearance in January, Maduro struck a defiant tone as he identified himself the president of Venezuela despite being captured.

The South American country is now led by Delcy Rodriguez, who had been Maduro's vice president since 2018.

Under US pressure, she is grappling with leading a country saddled with the world's largest proven oil reserves but an economy in shambles.

Rodriguez has since enacted a historic amnesty law to free political prisoners jailed under Maduro and reformed oil and mining regulations in line with US demands for access to her country's vast natural wealth.

This month, the State Department said it was restoring diplomatic ties with Venezuela in a sign of thawing relations.

Security is expected to be heightened around the New York courthouse for Thursday's hearing.

Presiding over the case is Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old judge credited with overseeing several high-profile trials during his decades on the bench.

World

Bus Sinks in Bangladesh River, Many Killed

Rescue teams conduct search operations and look for victims, a day after a bus plunged into the Padma River while boarding a ferry in Rajbari district, 84 km from Dhaka, Bangladesh, 26 March 2026. EPA/STR
Rescue teams conduct search operations and look for victims, a day after a bus plunged into the Padma River while boarding a ferry in Rajbari district, 84 km from Dhaka, Bangladesh, 26 March 2026. EPA/STR
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Bus Sinks in Bangladesh River, Many Killed

Rescue teams conduct search operations and look for victims, a day after a bus plunged into the Padma River while boarding a ferry in Rajbari district, 84 km from Dhaka, Bangladesh, 26 March 2026. EPA/STR
Rescue teams conduct search operations and look for victims, a day after a bus plunged into the Padma River while boarding a ferry in Rajbari district, 84 km from Dhaka, Bangladesh, 26 March 2026. EPA/STR

A bus carrying about 50 people plunged into a major river in central Bangladesh as it was driving onto a ferry, leaving at least 18 people dead, authorities said Thursday.

The bus plunged into the Padma River on Wednesday afternoon in Rajbari district, about 84 kilometers (52 miles) from the capital, Dhaka, said fire official Dewan Sohel Rana.

The bus was traveling to the capital from the southwestern district of Kushtia as people return to work after the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr, The Associated Press said.

Rana said many of the passengers swam to safety after the accident but others got trapped.

A rescue vessel joined the operation late Wednesday and lifted the bus, he said, and rescuers worked overnight to recover bodies, finding 18 by Thursday morning.

Strong currents and rains disrupted the rescue operations overnight, he said.

It was not clear if there was still anyone missing.

Ten women and two children were among the dead, according to the Fire Service and Civil Defense Department.